52 Notes from the Physiological Laboratory 



wheat grain, while the central portion included 

 within this layer, and constituting fully 80 per cent, 

 of the grain, has been popularly regarded as being 

 made up almost exclusively of cellulose and starch, 

 and attempts have even been made to estimate the 

 nutritive value of certain cereal food-stuffs by a 

 microscopical determination of the proportion of 

 " gluten-cells" present. 1 



The manifest impropriety of such methods has of 

 late been strongly emphasized by Prof. Richardson, 

 of this city, and Prof. Leeds, of Hoboken. The 

 credit of the first disproof of the exclusive limita- 

 tion of gluten to the cells of the fourth layer is 

 probably due to Schenk, 2 who treated sections of 

 wheat-grain with Millon's reagent, a pink coloration 

 of the endosperm resulting. This coloration was 

 most vivid at the periphery, indicating a gradual 

 condensation of the proteid constituents of the grain 

 as the cortex was approached. The same writer 

 found ."no coloration of the ' gluten-cells 7 as a 

 result of this reagent/ 7 an observation which we 

 cannot confirm; for, apart from the readily demon- 



to believe, however, that this is not a true albumen. (See 

 Vines, Journal of Physiology, vol. iii. p. 93.) 



1 E. Cutter, M.D , Gaillard's Med. Journ., Jan. 1882. 



2 Anat.-Physiol. Untersuch., p. 32, Wien, 1872. 



